The Descent name is owned by Interplay, but some of the specific assets (like the Pyro-GX, PTMC, and Dravis) are owned by Parallax, which is split between Outrage and Volition. So we have 3 asset holders who don't really play well together.

The easiest way to get around that is to make a prequel. They can hint at things like the Pyro -- maybe they have a series of ships going from Spark to Blaze to Inferno, which get more pyro-like at each step. They can hint at the PTMC -- the "Terran Mining Company" can be just beginning to expand to asteroid mining, and engaged in hostile takeovers of other asteroid mining companies, mafia-style ("pity your last expedition hasn't been heard from. Maybe they ran into some hostile alien robots. You know, we could protect you, if you were one of our subsidiaries.")

With a sequel, it's harder to come up with excuses for why the PTMC doesn't exist, which is hard to do when you can't say "PTMC".

Izchak says: 'slow down. Think clearly.'April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

Lothar wrote:The Descent name is owned by Interplay, but some of the specific assets (like the Pyro-GX, PTMC, and Dravis) are owned by Parallax, which is split between Outrage and Volition. So we have 3 asset holders who don't really play well together.

The easiest way to get around that is to make a prequel. They can hint at things like the Pyro -- maybe they have a series of ships going from Spark to Blaze to Inferno, which get more pyro-like at each step. They can hint at the PTMC -- the "Terran Mining Company" can be just beginning to expand to asteroid mining, and engaged in hostile takeovers of other asteroid mining companies, mafia-style ("pity your last expedition hasn't been heard from. Maybe they ran into some hostile alien robots. You know, we could protect you, if you were one of our subsidiaries.")

With a sequel, it's harder to come up with excuses for why the PTMC doesn't exist, which is hard to do when you can't say "PTMC".

Ugh, I know, the asset problems is the problem. They need to go after all the assets so they don't have to make something convoluted just because they can't say a word or show a ship, its ridiculous.

Let's support this project as it may be the last oportunity we have to get a game with the Descent brand!

As already specified by the developers (on their forums, on the KS comments and even corrected on their main KS page):

Yeah, it will include Single-Player and Co-op.
Yeah, it will feature D1/2 flight mechanics.
Yeah, it will have a Descent-style ship (the Torch KS, precursor of the Pyro)
Yeah, it will narrate how the PTMC and Robots came to be.
Yeah, every ship can be earned in-game without paying a cent (even if there may be an option to accelerate the acquiring by buying the ship earlier).

Nope, it won't be needed any subscription to play.
Nope, it won't be a MOBA.
Nope, it won't be pay-to-win.
Nope, micro-transactions won't be needed for crucial ship upgrades, just for small cosmetic stuff that won't alter gameplay.
Also, there may be mod support and maybe even an internal market-place for us to sell community mods (although this is just a preliminar idea).

And I would also recommend to check out their new and better video:

-

Yeah, Sol Contingency may be better and we may like it more, but whether we like it or not, it won't have the Descent brand nor assets on it, so it won't be an official Descent title.

So there's no better oportunity to get an official Descent game than this one, don't let their KS campaign fail, I would really LOVE to see a new Descent game on the Steam store!!

This article states that they are trying to and have been in contact with previous developers of descent.
Here's a blurb:

Although the last official game in the Descent franchise was released back in 1999, publisher Interplay still owns the IP rights. In fact, Peterson originally set out to make a 6-DoF shooter in the style of Descent without actually being a branded Descent game. "We were making a game that was called 'Ships That Fight Underground,' or STFU—it was a working title!—and we got approached by one of our fans that was a shareholder at Interplay and said, 'Would you guys like to do Descent?'" This led to a series of meetings with Herve Caen, CEO of Interplay, which then resulted in an official licensing agreement to use the name and be part of the franchise.

"He liked the pedigree we were bringing," said Peterson about the talk with Caen. "I think he had a few other people try to reboot it, but they weren’t doing it to the AAA level. When you’re going to reboot something you really need to take it to the next generation or else you’re just doing the same game, and that won’t really work."

The entire set of gameplay ideas Peterson and his team had dreamed up—ideas that were patterned after Descent anyway when they were still making "STFU"—thus were promoted into officialdom when the project went from "a game in the style of Descent" to "a Descent game."

Peterson also said that Descendent has been in contact with the original Descent developers from Parallax Software (which split in 1997 into two separate studios, Volition and Outrage; Outrage was shuttered in 2004 and Volition was recently rescued from the ashes of THQ by Koch Media). For now, the original developers remain uninvolved with Descendent’s efforts, but Peterson remains open to the idea of working with them, along with other developers who have worked on Descent reboots in the past few years.

I was hoping Matt Toshlog would get involved...but havent heard anything about that, even tho I've posted a few times with that very question.
Here's the link of the article

"He liked the pedigree we were bringing," said Peterson about the talk with Caen. "I think he had a few other people try to reboot it, but they weren’t doing it to the AAA level. When you’re going to reboot something you really need to take it to the next generation or else you’re just doing the same game, and that won’t really work."

The vast majority of "AAA" level games I've played recently are disposable, but I still occasionally play Descent 1 single player. AAA doesn't have to be "next generation" or different or any sort of that marketing bullshit, a game should be challenging and fun before it is anything else. Being different simply for the sake of being different is probably what I like the LEAST about D2 and D3, they spent so much time on doing new and different things that it took away from the "fun and challenging" parts. People who think this way and push for "AAA" games to be like that are morons who don't understand what makes a good video game actually stick.

WTF are they saying about "Classic Mode" it isn't "classic" by default?

"Classic mode" means basically, D1/2 style anarchy. Fly around, pick up weapons, kill people, die, respawn. No mining, no carving out new tunnels, no need for a mix of scout ships and support ships and assault ships, no in-game progression. Just fly a ship-we-cant-call-a-pyro and kill stuff.

Izchak says: 'slow down. Think clearly.'April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

Thus far all of the specifics about flight mechanics have been good ("there will be trichording." *looks at Lothar like he's an idiot for even asking* - WingMan) But we don't have the full details we'd like. There will be a livestream on Tuesday that will be focused on the details of flight.

Izchak says: 'slow down. Think clearly.'April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

All I want is a singleplayer campaign with a spreadfire cannon and robots I can actually hit on Ace/Insane unlike in D3 where killing a single robot is a 2 minute dogfight because of how small and agile the robot is.

No-one mentioned geocore because this is a thread about descent underground.

A few notes on Geocore:
- It reminds me of my own attempts at making a 6dof game.I worked for 4 years and had a passable single player going! What do i mean by this? It has exactly he same problems my one did. The robots don't have character. Is their strategy: move at the player while attacking? This doesn't make for interesting playing.
The place my game failed was not on the game. I finished that pretty much to my satisfaction. It fell apart when I lost motivation for making levels....
- I can't play your demo alpha build. It runs at ~10fps, and my laptop isn't a slouch either. Not sure if this is separate or as a result, but the ship motion felt strange.

I had a long conversation with a few of the moderators last night, and I feel like the lightbulb finally came on for me -- I think I get the vision, and I've turned the corner from "I want to influence this" to "I'm fully onboard" (relatedly, I upped my KS pledge to the $2500 Omnipotent One / Advisory Board level).

All this time I've been thinking "this guy is making some weird casual game with 8 ships, and he's willing to tack on real Descent to placate hardcore players, but he views it as just an add-on to the casual game he wants to sell to casual gamers". But now I see the coherent whole, with the base game as a sort of player funnel to guide people from noobhood to whatever skill level they're willing to invest time in reaching, and with D1 flight/combat at the top of the pyramid.

Back in 1995, D1 trainee mode mostly taught us how to fly around without hitting too many walls, to occasionally dodge a shot, and to explore levels. Bumping the skill level up put more focus on dodging and moving efficiently. Bumping it up again got us into planning ("I need to secure the energy and take out the hulk behind the grating before I go for the blue key") and resource management ("do I use this smart missile now or hold it for the nasty room coming up?") Then we discovered friends and neighbors who played Descent, and got into modem games, and learned more advanced tactics for fighting intelligent opponents -- prediction, setting ambushes, running away, dogfighting. Eventually we got on Kali and learned more advanced tactics, and those who were really motivated and honed their craft joined elite clans or ladders. And of course some people settled at each of those levels instead of climbing further.

Now I understand how the 8-ship game relates. It's a system to expose new players to different parts of the flight dynamics and tactics, for gamers who expect to learn by playing multi instead of learning by playing bots. Mining teaches you how to fly around without hitting too many walls, to occasionally dodge a shot, and to explore levels. Scout ships that see more combat and need to cover more ground will put more focus on dodging and moving efficiently. The ships and roles and game modes are designed to help people deal with the skill curve -- not merely to sell the game to casual players, but to build casual players into competent pilots, and build a few of those into top-tier competitors. So the current competitive community isn't just an afterthought; we're the *target* for the most motivated players, and we're also their training mechanism -- when the ever-important matchmaking algorithm puts them on our radar, we're the ones who will make them say "how did you DO that? Teach me!" The awesome flying we want isn't just tacked on to the game; it's the explicit goal, which is why they're reaching out to people who fly well and can explain why.

That's what will make this "Better Descent" -- a superior way to bring pilots up the skill curve, keeping it fun the whole way, but where skill is still king. There's still time to screw it up, but if they keep going the way they've been going, this will be the Descent game that's better than Drakona would make. So I'm no longer urging mere cautious openness. I'm officially on the D:U bandwagon. Come support it with me.

Izchak says: 'slow down. Think clearly.'April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

Well, I'm not totally on-board, but I am seeing some very promising elements overall, so I've kicked in $250, and will kick in an additional $35 for my little brother. I think a Descent after all these years, especially from folks on the level of Descendent Studios, is huge, even if you do start out in a yellow submarine.

It'll hit it, and go far beyond, no worries.
The key number to watch is the # of backers.

I'm surprised there arent more descenters jumping on board yet, but I'm thinking they'll jump in soon enough.
This has everything from Descent except the names and robots...which can be modded in.
It wouldnt surprise me if they got Parallax and Volition to take a piece of the action for the rights to the IP, and finally
consolidate all things Descent under one roof again.

This game looks great, and even tho I'm a D3 fan more than D1/D2, I am really looking forward to the great
vauss battles and dogfights we used to have in D1!

I'm skeptical. Not in this groups ability to produce a quality game, but in the idea that a Descent game would be as successful as it was in the past. Joysticks were a much more common peripheral back in the day.

On the other hand, keyboards are of much higher quality than they were before. Gaming KB+gaming mouse is a very competitive setup. There's essentially an even split between joystick players and kb+mouse players among the top active pilots. (Come play with us: http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php )

Izchak says: 'slow down. Think clearly.'April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

Joysticks were more common, and people were less of a bunch of whiny idiot children who need instant gratification to buy a game.

When people new to Descent jump into multiplayer and encounter one of the old school pilots, they aren't going to think "Wow, how do I learn to do that?" what they will think will be more along the lines of "This is bullshit, the game is dumb and these jerks are cheating!".

Not that I want to rain on their parade, just a sanity check reminder that an "AAA" Descent title is really unlikely to even come close to the success of extreme comfort zone generic war simulator #672 (Now with 4000% more achievements!).

Lothar wrote:On the other hand, keyboards are of much higher quality than they were before. Gaming KB+gaming mouse is a very competitive setup. There's essentially an even split between joystick players and kb+mouse players among the top active pilots. (Come play with us: http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php )

Do you guys only do 1on1? (is it even possible to do more than 1on1 in D1/D2 without LAN/Kali?) I always enjoyed bigger games more than 1on1.

Krom wrote:Joysticks were more common, and people were less of a bunch of whiny idiot children who need instant gratification to buy a game.

When people new to Descent jump into multiplayer and encounter one of the old school pilots, they aren't going to think "Wow, how do I learn to do that?" what they will think will be more along the lines of "This is ****, the game is dumb and these jerks are cheating!".

Not that I want to rain on their parade, just a sanity check reminder that an "AAA" Descent title is really unlikely to even come close to the success of extreme comfort zone generic war simulator #672 (Now with 4000% more achievements!).

That's what audio taunts/taunt macros are for, Krom...

I feel that the community or Descendent Studios in particular could avoid the "this game is dumb and these jerks are cheating" factor be sort of making legends/heros/celebrities of top pilots. Not that I want to be a legend/hero/celebrity, but if you want something to be valued instead of scorned you sell it (so to speak). Perception is huge in the world we live in. If top pilots are made a big deal of, on some sort of official level, they will be heros instead of assholes or cheaters, but you have to show off what they're doing.

Vander wrote:I'm skeptical. Not in this groups ability to produce a quality game, but in the idea that a Descent game would be as successful as it was in the past. Joysticks were a much more common peripheral back in the day.

True, however because of the success of Star Citizen, as well as Elite, joysticks are back en vogue.
I had moved on to flight sims after descent, and can attest that joysticks are alive and well--new models of the various HOTAS style sticks/throttles
have been recently released.

Add to this that game pads as controllers have hit the main stream (Chris Roberts uses a xbox style controller to demo Star Citizen), means that there's LOTS
of ways to control your ship now.